


Not a Nice Man

by blueshadows



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 23:04:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5720347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueshadows/pseuds/blueshadows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In tribute to Alan Rickman, who lost his battle with cancer today.<br/>Rest in peace, and may your memory live on in us always.<br/>--<br/>Harry, visiting Severus Snape's grave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not a Nice Man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alan Rickman](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Alan+Rickman).



> This is a tribute to Alan Rickman, who brought the character Severus Snape to life on screen.  
> I had never liked Snape. I thought he was a bully and weak. But as the series went on, he became more complex. It was hard to paint him as an evil man, and just as hard to paint him as a good one. But he was a strong man, one who showed better, I think, than any other that you cannot judge a book by its cover. I can think of no actor who could have brought such qualities to life the way Alan Rickman had.
> 
> Thank you, Alan Rickman, and may you rest in peace.

To say that he was not a nice man would not have been a lie.

Severus Snape had never been what people called a nice man.

His students usually remembered him as the ‘dungeon bat’, a source of fear and cutting sarcasm. A man who had betrayed Dumbledore when he had been needed the most. A man to hate, target, and spit at. A bully.

But Harry knew the truth. 

He knew that Snape had had such few options left to him, that he had been making the most of what he had. That he had been trying to save the students from the threat of Voldemort. And that he had died and entrusted his memories to him, so that he could do what was needed.

You see, it doesn’t take a great man to betray someone. Indeed, one could say that it took a very little man indeed. And it did not take a strong man to become a target for hate, to be spat upon, to bully. But Severus had been more than that. 

He had been the strongest man Harry had known, one who had endured a fate most would break under. He had protected everyone he could, and lessened what suffering he lessen. He had sacrificed his freedom to ensure that the dark lord would fall. He had, one could say, sacrificed his sanity as well. His whole life from the moment he had joined Dumbledore was all just one long and seemingly endless trial.

So, Harry thought, perhaps it was his choice now to lie, peaceful and under the ground. And there was little for him, he knew, among the living. His lifelong love had passed on years ago. Voldemort had been vanquished. Harry was safe. There was nothing left to teeter him to this world. Not anymore.

After a life so full of pain, it wasn’t hard to see why he would want the peace of endless slumber.

Harry bows his head.

“Thank you.”

When he leaves, all that’s there to remember that he had been there is a bouquet of roses, enchanted to last forever. And in the middle of it all, a single lily.

**Author's Note:**

> A bouquet of mature blooms symbolizes gratitude, while the lily had been placed there for obvious reasons.


End file.
